I went to a preview screening of Tarsem Singh’s new movie, THE FALL, on Wednesday night at Moma, because I’m a massive Eiko Ishioka fan. My first run-in with Eiko was undoubtedly my mother’s Shiseido shampoo bottle – a cyclindrical tin can with abstract seaweed and gold slashings, which I remember distinctly. Whether it’s a costume for a film, a perfume bottle, a stage set for the opera, or an advertising campaign, Eiko’s visuals have the kind of stark conviction that transforms the environment around them. Like a lot of the work of my favorite artists, they ask absolutely no permission from the spectator. So it was with a guaranteed level of excitement that I approached this preview screening. I was familiar with Eiko and Tarsem’s last collaboration together – THE CELL – and knew what to expect: a feature-length music video with high entertainment value and questionable nutritional content. Honestly, the only thing mesmerising about that film were the sweeping, lavish and horrifyingly unique design, and the same can be said for THE FALL. From soaring, dream-like vistas of never-ending sand dunes, to intricately carved land-art in forests and swamps, Tarsem has a knack for manipulating his environment to unexpected, transcendental heights, often envisioning paradise as Hades, and vice versa. Maybe I’d be more open to the storyline if I hadn’t already been somewhat earlier seduced by PAN’S LABRYNTH; it follows a similar reality-then-dream-then-reality-again narrative structure, which I regretted, always wishing there was more time to spend in fantasia (I will say, though, that the actress who played the little girl in this film is a total discovery). In any case, Eiko stuns again.